Nina T. McKee ’16 Program Director, Madeleine K. Albright Institute for Global Affairs
Nina brings her lifelong passion and curiosity for multidisciplinary approaches to global issues, as well as her experience as a 2015 Albright Fellow, to her position as Program Director. At Wellesley, she majored in Political Science and minored in Middle Eastern studies, and spent time studying in Jordan and working in Guatemala and India. She was also a senior year captain of the rowing team, which proudly won the 2016 National Championships. After graduating in 2016, she focused her energies on supporting grassroots community development organizations through leading experiential education programs in Guatemala, Palestine and Israel, and Ecuador. In this capacity, she facilitated relationships with local organizations focusing on issues ranging from environmental justice, permaculture, and Mayan eco-cultural restoration, to human rights mass atrocity transitional justice programs, anti-occupation and peace efforts, and public health. She also spent one year working on asylum efforts in Chios, Greece as the director of a non-food item distribution program and co-founder of an organization providing legal information services.
Her work with these organizations inspired her studies in international political, legal, and humanitarian systems, and she obtained her Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Transnational Crime and Justice at UNICRI (United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute) in Torino, Italy in 2020. In 2023, she completed her Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in Humanitarian Action at the Geneva Centre of Humanitarian Studies (a joint-institute of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and the University of Geneva) in 2023. She speaks proficient French and Spanish, advanced Arabic, and intermediate German. She has also studied Farsi and Kiswahili.
Prior to returning to Wellesley, Nina enjoyed 3.5 years living in Switzerland with her spouse and two dogs. While there, in addition to studying, she represented a small NGO at the United Nations Human Rights Council, dove enthusiastically into a plethora of Swiss traditions, and spent ample time planting perennials in her mountain-based gardens.
Nina is excited to use her leadership skills to grow the Albright Institute's programming further and to strengthen connections between Albright Fellows, past and present. She is the first former Albright Fellow to work in this position.